Vassily Ivanchuk

Ivanchuk was born in Kopychyntsi, Ukraine. He won the 1987 European Junior Chess Championship in Groningen and first achieved international notice by winning the 1988 New York Open scoring 7½/9 points, ahead of a field of grandmasters. He tied for first place in the 1988 World Junior Chess Championship at Adelaide, but lost the title on tiebreak to Joël Lautier. He was awarded the Grandmaster title in 1988, and entered the world top 10 the same year.

Ivanchuk attained chess world fame in 1991 at the age of 21 when he won the Linares tournament. Fourteen players participated, eight of them, including World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov, rated in the top ten in the world, and another two among the world's top 50 players. Ivanchuk edged Kasparov by a half point, defeating Kasparov in their head-to-head game.

Ivanchuk has often been at his best in international team competitions. He has played in 14 Chess Olympiads, twice for the Soviet Union (1988 and 1990), and twelve times for Ukraine, after the Soviet Union split up in 1991. He has won a total of thirteen medals, and has been on four gold-medal winning teams (USSR in 1988 and 1990, Ukraine in 2004 and 2010). In 162 games, Ivanchuk has scored (+63 =87 -12), for 65.7 per cent. His detailed Olympiad records are as follows:

At round one of Linares in 1991 the then only 21-year-old Ivanchuk gives up both his bishops for knights and then boxes Kasparov, then world champion, into complete passivity.

It was widely believed that Ivanchuk might become world champion. He came close in 2002, when he reached the final of the FIDE World Chess Championship 2002. Ivanchuk has consistently ranked among the top 10 since 1988, but Mark Crowther's The Week in Chess said his erratic play was due to "poor temperament." His results have seen him drop as low as 30th in July 2009, but he returned to the top ten in the next list. His inability to become world champion despite his immense talent and longevity has been attributed to his admittedly poor nerves, demonstrated by blunders such as at the 1994 London Grand Prix blitz, when he failed to complete a strong attack on Viswanathan Anand with a mate in one despite having 1:14 left on the clock. Ivanchuk's nerves were notably exposed during the high-tension atmosphere of World Championship match-format tournaments, such as in 2002 where he was heavily favored in the FIDE championship final after having defeated defending champion Anand in the semifinals, only to lose to countryman Ruslan Ponomariov in a major upset, denying him the championship. Subsequent match-play tournaments in World Championship cycles saw Ivanchuk consistently underperform; in the FIDE World Chess Championship 2004, Chess World Cup 2005, Chess World Cup 2007, and Chess World Cup 2009, he failed to advance past the third round despite being seeded No. 5, No. 1, No. 1 and No. 6 respectively in those events.

Ivanchuk's world championship aspirations were also dampened by the unfortunate title split from 1993 to 2006. Due to obligations with FIDE, Ivanchuk and Anand did not participate in the 2002 Dortmund Candidates tournament for the Classical World Chess Championship 2004. He was then narrowly excluded, on the basis of rating, from the rival FIDE World Chess Championship 2005. While he won one of the events of the FIDE Grand Prix 2008–2010, his overall performance was not enough to qualify him for the World Chess Championship 2012 candidates tournament.

In a major upset, the USA defeated Ukraine 3½ to ½ with Ivanchuk losing his game against Gata Kamsky, causing Ukraine to fall to fourth and miss out on a medal. Ivanchuk was so distraught after the game that he was seen "kicking a large concrete pillar". He refused to take a doping test and stormed out, risking punishment under FIDE rules and forfeiting his games in the event as had happened in the 2004 Chess Olympiad in Majorca. Ivanchuk was cleared when it emerged that he had not been warned of the test, and that in his distraught frame of mind, he had not fully understood the arbiter's request.

Ivanchuk was first married to Alisa Galliamova, also a chess player. On November 18, 2006, he married for the second time.

Ivanchuk was playing on board 1 for Ukraine in the 2008 Chess Olympiad held in Dresden. Going into the last round Ukraine was second with decent chances of placing 1st, and only a strong loss against a 10th-seeded USA would leave them without a medal. Ivanchuk was chosen to be tested for illegal substances in his system immediately after the last round.

In 2011, Ivanchuk and his second wife were mugged the day they were set to leave from São Paulo, Brazil on a plane bound for Spain to finish the second half of the Bilbao Grand Slam Masters. Ivanchuk threatened to withdraw from the tournament altogether, but his wife convinced him to continue. He had been leading in the tournament before this event, but did not play as well in the second half of the tournament.

Ivanchuk played in the 2013 Candidates Tournament, which took place in London, from 15 March to 1 April. He finished seventh, with a score of +3−5=6. The tournament was notable for his unusually poor time management (he lost two games on time), as well as his major impact on the leaderboard despite being a tail ender: he managed to defeat both leaders Magnus Carlsen (round 12) and Vladimir Kramnik (round 14), resulting in Carlsen qualifying for the World Chess Championship by tiebreak.

In 2013, Gawain Jones called Ivanchuk "possibly the most talented [player] ever". When asked in 2012 to name chess players she considered geniuses, Judit Polgár named only Ivanchuk, Carlsen and Anand.

In 2016, Ivanchuk won the World Rapid Chess Championship in Doha, Qatar, with a score of 11/15. He defeated Carlsen, among many others.

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Chess.com - Happy 50th birthday to Vassily Ivanchuk! ... | Facebook

Happy 50th birthday to Vassily Ivanchuk! The imaginative Ukrainian chess (and draughts) player's accomplishments include... * entering the top 10 while still an IM * 2007 World Blitz Champion...

Happy 49th Birthday to Vassily Ivanchuk! | Sakk

Last update: 18 March 2018, 22:24 GMT # ↑↓ Name Classic +/− Rapid Blitz Age 31 ↑4 Ivanchuk 2718.0 +5.0 2682.0 2710.0 49 European Individual Chess Championship

2013 Candidates, Round 3: Ivanchuk-Aronian

Another tragedy for Vassily Ivanchuk, but he really only had himself to blame because of his disastrous clock handling. As John Nunn told us...